Translation Copyright 1998 by Peter Lemesurier
In the Letter which I dedicated years ago to my son César Nostradamus I declared a number of points fairly openly, without casting them in prophetic form. But here, Sire, are contained many great and awesome events, as those who come after shall see. And during [the period covered by] these astrological calculations, carried out in conjunction with the Sacred Scriptures, the persecution of the clergy shall find its origin in the power of the Northern rulers, united with the Middle Eastern ones.
This persecution shall last eleven years or a little less, whereupon the power of the main northern ruler shall collapse. At the end of these years his southern ally shall move to persecute the clergy even more severely for three years, thanks to the seductive apostasy of one who holds absolute power in the Church Militant. The holy people of God who do still observe its laws shall, like the religious orders themselves, be greatly persecuted and afflicted, to such an extent that the blood of true churchmen and churchwomen shall flow far and wide. One of the most horrible of the political rulers, indeed, shall be praised by his followers for having spilt more of the blood of innocent churchpeople than anybody could possibly have wine in his wine-cellar. This ruler shall commit the most incredible crimes against the Church. Human blood shall flow through the city streets and churches, like water after heavy rain. Nearby rivers shall run red with blood, just as shall the sea after a naval battle that shall cause one ruler to report to another that 'Bellis rubuit navalibus aequor' [Latin (Virgil?): 'The sea blushed red with blood of naval war.' ]
Then, in that same year and in those following, there shall ensue the most terrible pestilence, made even more awful by the famine that shall precede it. And there shall be tribulations, even throughout the Latin nations, greater than any that have occurred since the first foundation of the Christian Church, such as to leave their traces even in various countries of the Iberian peninsula.
Then the third Northern ruler, hearing the pleas of the people of his principal domain, shall raise a huge army. Re-crossing the straits once traversed by his most recent predecessors and those before them, he shall restore most things to rights. The great Vicar of the Cope, too, shall be restored to his original state that shall have been laid waste and then completely abandoned, and he shall return to his Holy of Holies (now destroyed by paganism) from which Old and New Testaments alike shall have been been thrown out and burnt. And after the Antichrist shall come the Prince of Hell. And so yet again - though for the last time - all the Kingdoms of Christendom shall tremble, as shall the heathen too, for the space of twenty-five years. There shall be even more terrible wars and battles, and towns, cities, castles and all other buildings shall be burnt, sacked and destroyed. There shall be a great shedding of virgin blood; married women and widows shall be raped; sucking babes shall be dashed and broken against town walls. So many evils shall be committed through the agency of Satan, Prince of Hell that almost the entire world shall find itself undone and destroyed. And before these events a number of unusual birds shall cry in mid-air 'Huy! Huy!' [in Old French, 'Today! Today!', but in Hebrew, 'Woe! Woe!' as per the premonitory eagle of John's Revelation], and after some time they shall [be found to have] disappear[ed] again.
And after this period has lasted for a good long time, what shall be virtually a new reign of Saturn or Golden Age shall be established. Paying heed to the afflictions of His people, God shall order Satan to be bound and thrown into the deep pit of the bottomless abyss. Then a universal peace shall commence between God and man, while Satan shall stay bound for around the space of a thousand years, before being unleashed again to turn all his might against the power of the Church.